Make custom pattern mats from printed grids. The PreKinders website has a grid available to download featuring three rows of ten cubes. Use markers to color the cubes on the grids in simple patterns. Choose an AB pattern for each row of cubes, alternating red and blue in the first row, green and yellow in the second row and orange and white in the third row. Laminate the grids for durability. Give children ten Unifix cubes of each color. Ask preschoolers to link the cubes in the patterns on the grid, then place the resulting stick of cubes on the matching grid row.
Take a box of Unifix cubes to the large group area of your classroom. Seat children on the floor in a circle. Remove one red cube and one blue cube from the box. Point to each cube as you say, "red, blue." Link the red cube onto the blue cube. Again, point to the cubes and say each color in order. Ask children to decide which color cube belongs in the pattern next. Choose a volunteer to take the correct cube from the box and place it on the row of cubes. Repeat aloud the pattern of cubes each time a new one is added. Progress to more complicated patterns once your class grasps the AB pattern concept.
Place ten red, blue and yellow Unifix cubes, separated by color, into individual cups. Let children work in pairs to create repeating patterns with the cubes to create pattern trains. Ask preschoolers to take turns snapping a cube onto the row. Suggest a row of alternating red and yellow cubes to form a simple AB repeating pattern. Older children can form complex pattern trains, linking two green cubes followed by one blue for an AAB pattern.
Purchase colored sticker dots, available where teacher supplies are sold, so preschoolers can create a take-home example of daily classroom patterning practice. Provide Unifix cubes and ask the children to choose two sets of five cubes in two colors. Instruct the children to link the Unifix cubes in an AB pattern. Suggest red, then blue or yellow, then green in a repeating pattern. When each child has linked a row of ten cubes in an AB pattern, pass index cards and sticker-dots in colors matching the cubes. Ask the children to place stickers on the cards in the same pattern as the row of cubes.